Ace Attorney
There are about 4 or 5 cases in a game. These cases are related in some way so that these cases form a large story. Every case is a homicide case in order to make players excited.
Homicide
In most cases, the defendant is innocent but he/she is framed by the real murderer. The story has to be so. Then after players find the truth, they can feel happy because they win the court argument and find the truth. If the defendant was not innocent, the player would feel unhappy because although they find the truth, they lose the fight. That's why every case looks similar.
The defendant is innocent
Every case can be divided into two parts: One part is outside the court and the other part is inside the court. Outside the court, players play as a detective going around different places and trying to find valuable information and evidences. Inside the court players play as a lawyer trying to prove that the defendant is innocent using different evidences.
Outside the court, players can interact with different characters and different places. They can investigate the places and try to find some evidence. They can also talk with different persons and try to find some useful information and evidences. This seems pretty free. However, in order to add to story elements, these investigations are made very linear in Ace Attorney. So the story is always progressing.
In order to make players still feel some freedom, the game uses several indirect controls: Players can select different topics talking with persons, but one topic will appear only after the previous topic is done. Players can go by different places at any time, but the event will happen only after the previous event happened. So when I play this game, I don't feel much restriction in this part.
This is totally 'free'
Another unique system is 'Heart Locks'. Players have a special emerald which can see if people are hiding some secrets. These secrets are visualized as 'Heart Locks' in the game. Players have to find evidences and try to break these 'Heart locks'. In essence, this is an interrogation. But the visualization of the secrets makes it so exciting: we can see the moments when these locks are broken and we succeed in the interrogation.
The heart locks
Inside the court, the core gameplay element is the cross examine. The witness will talk about what they saw about the homicide. There are probably some contradictions between his testimony and the evidences. Our task is to find out the contradiction.
Cross Examination
In cross examinations, we can choose from different sentences. When we are not sure where the contradiction is, we can choose to 'press'. 'Press' means ask further about the certain sentences. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it works, we get some new testimonies.
When we are sure where the contradiction is, we can choose to 'present'. We can show the evidence which contradicts with the testimony. If we succeed, then the witness will be panic and change his/her testimony. Then we cross examine again.
After these processes, we are nearer and nearer to the truth. We can find who the real murderer is. It feels so good when we find the contradictions by ourselves and we will be immersed into the game.
There are other systems to make the game more variable. For example, in the emotion system, players have to find the contradiction between the witness' emotions and the testimonies. In the small action system, players can find small actions witnesses are doing when they are lying. They are very fun but they cannot be the core gameplay system: They are not as logical as cross examinations and can be boring if there are too many of them.
Emotion System
Small Action System
Of course, we cannot forget about the exciting stories, different characters, excellent music, etc. in the game. But the systems in the game make it distinctive from other detective stories, movies, etc. It makes us truly participate in the game.
I watched Ace Attorney's youtube video and found it
ReplyDeleteexciting too. The representation of the game is not new
to us, but the gameplay and the overall control of
interactive storytelling is quite intriguing.For
example, sometimes your choice wouldn't have influence
on the outcome or your defendent's words, but either
way it makes sense.And the "rejection" feels good when
you do cross-examines by shout it loud.
I remember Jesse bringing up Ace Attorney in class. It sounds like a sort of boring concept to be honest, sifting through text to find inconsistencies to be honest, which is a testament to the skill of the designers to make it so engaging to you and others. It is also quite interesting to hear that it follows a very similar format each time, but still remains engaging and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of games like this one before, but I have never actually played one. It was interesting to read how the game is actually played. It sounds somewhat interesting though I am wary about how repetitive gameplay could be if the scenario is often that the the client is being framed. Though I can imagine many ways for that client to be framed but it would really have to be something surprising to hold my interest after that first game. Reading through your description did get me thinking that this game almost sounds like it could be turned into a serious game. For example, you could use it to frame logic questions and teach people how to create a good logical argument. The use of facial expressions in the game got me thinking that there may be a tie in to those that have a hard time recognizing facial expressions. This type of game play could help identify these people.
ReplyDelete